Page 9 - Dylan Spellman News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Spellman police found his dna just 30 feet from where the girls were shot. that's when he says spellman's demeanor changed. >> he asked me, you know, "what -- what -- what are the consequences?" and i said, "well, in texas, i said, you know this is a death penalty kind of case." >> reporter: and then dylan spellman asked about a deal. >> normally any person that's innocent isn't gonna ask for a deal. you're gonna profess your innocence. and he wasn't. >> now i'm thinking, "this is my guy." >> reporter: so chavez asked spellman to take a polygraph and spellman agreed. >> and how does he do? >> ...

Welcome back. a mysterious letter had identified cristobal melchor as the man who shot kristene chapa and her girlfriend, mollie olgin. after police spoke with melchor, they turned their attention to his former roommate, david strickland. police wanted to hear what he had to say, and they were not the only ones. here's josh mankiewicz with the conclusion of "a texas twist." >> first came dylan spellman, cleared by police and by his height. then kris melchchris melchor, ad of suspicion by geography. now the detective us with on the trail of another man, david strickland. the detective learned t...

Criminal past. >> dylan spellman had just been convicted of a violent crime. >> yes. >> on an armed robbery in in nevada. >> yeah. >> reporter: that nevada armed robbery occurred in 2010, a year and a half before the shootings. spellman and some accomplices broke into a home in a las vegas suburb and held a family hostage before robbing them and taking off. >> anybody get killed? >> no. >> reporter: and at the time of the shootings in 2012, dylan spellman was in the corpus christi area, awaiting sentencing for the nevada armed robbery. >> he had been sent here to -- to stay with a friend. >> r...

To strengthen his case against dylan spellman, investigators in neighboring sinton, texas, received a mysterious letter addressed to kristene chapa's dad. >> immediately i knew this was something very, very big and very important. >> reporter: the letter writer described himself as a hitman hired by the person who'd shot mollie and kristene. he wrote the gunman had sought his services to finish the job and make the only witness to mollie's murder disappear. >> what he's saying is, "i was hired to kill kristene, but i'm not gonna do it. instead, i'm warning you." >> that's right. >> he's tellin...

>> reporter: it didn't help that chavez's one eyewitness to the shootings could not identify spellman from a photo lineup. >> it was very hard because the suspects all looked the same. >> reporter: and then there was the matter of mr. spellman's height. >> he's big. >> he's, what, 6'8"? >> 6'8". >> reporter: remember, kristene said the shooter was quite a bit shorter than that. 5'8", maybe 5'9". >> for me, it -- it was always the -- the difficulty of -- of getting over the size. >> reporter: so chavez and his team regrouped. >> we began getting cell phone records for him, getting hair samples ...